When life hands you lemons...

When I arrived home famished tonight, the produce drawer handed me a questionable cabbage--one of those vegetables that rolled around in the fridge for weeks, unclaimed by anyone, until one day last week it was mysteriously assigned to my drawer. Hunger cravings overwhelming me, I told myself that I had to keep it under control until I could figure out what to do with my cabbage.

All of this was further spurred on because a friend told me last night that he "just isn't a cabbage man"--dear ol' cabbage and I take that as a personal affront and a gauntlet thrown.

I looked to my new compendium of vegetable love, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (more than 200 pages in the section on produce alone!), written by Mark Bittman, a writer for the NYT. His cabbage offerings were less than inspirational, but I flipped over to the Brussels Sprouts section (they are, after all, mini cabbages) and decided to adapt an "Indian-style treatment" of the tasty gems.

Ingredients:
1 head green cabbage--cored, chopped into bite-sized pieces (the size isn't too important)
About 1 Tbsp. olive oil for the pan
2-3 tsp. mustard
2-3 tsp. paprika/crushed red pepper flakes/black ground pepper (some like it hot)

1-2 Tbsp. Garam Masala (a slightly sweet mix of spices)

Real Salt
About 1/3 cup plain yogurt
2 tsp. coconut milk

Once I'd removed the older leaves from the outside of the cabbage and chopped the remaining, I rinsed it in our salad spinner. I left a good bit of moisture on the leaves.

I heated the olive oil over medium-high heat (a 6 out of 10) in an oversized skillet with a lid, then added about 1 tsp. each of the mustard and the pepper flakes and a generous sprinkling of the garam masala. I heated for about 1 minute until they became fragrant, then added the cabbage. I let it simmer for a bit, but had to pour off a bit of the water left from the leaves and add more spice. I should say that for this dish, the spiciness and flavor are really up to you. Add some spice, then try it; if the dish isn't flavorful enough, add more spice! X, Ladson, and I all agree it's best to be liberal with pepper.

After about five minutes, I added the yogurt and coconut milk. Bittman's recipe called for a cup of coconut milk, but I decided the yogurt substitution would be just as creamy without all the fat. I stirred, covered the skillet, and let it cook over higher heat (about an 8 out of 10) for 5 more minutes, until the cabbage was nice and soft. I cooked for a couple more minutes without the lid, until the whole melange was at my desired thickness.

In another skillet, I'd heated up a wild-caught salmon burger from Whole Foods. When everything was done, I put it on a small plate (this trick is recommended to help you avoid eating way TOO much of your healthy delicacy) and ate up. Not the most picturesque of vegetable meals, but certainly a delight to taste. A bit sweet, a hint of sour--not altogether removed from lemonade.